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In North Carolina S730 entitled the “Ratepayer Protection Act” referred to the Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate on June 8, 2026.

Among other things this legislation establishes new requirements for large data centers.  As written the bill applies to data centers defined as facilities, campuses, or interconnected facilities primarily used for storing, managing, retrieving, and processing digital data with a peak monthly electricity demand of 100 megawatts or greater.  It creates local approval requirements for data center siting and conditional or special use permits and requires each covered data center in North Carolina to enter into an electric service contract with the electric public utility serving it. These contracts must include terms designed to protect residential, retail, and wholesale customers from costs incurred to serve the data center and to prevent other customers from subsidizing the cost of the data center’s service.

In New Jersey A4945 was introduced that would require the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to conduct a study and submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature concerning the environmental, infrastructural, and financial impacts of data center development in the state. The bill outlines the requirements that the BPU must include in the report, including, at a minimum, information concerning energy consumption and water use by data centers in the state and a list of recommendations for legislative action or the promulgation of additional regulations to mitigate the adverse impacts of data center development on the environment, infrastructure, and utility rates.